Stella Blackburn, M.B. B.S., has been appointed vice president and global head of Risk Management for Quintiles Real-World & Late Phase Research group. Dr. Blackburn will be responsible for leading risk management efforts in North America, EU and Asia-Pacific, and will develop benefit risk management services, assist customers with interpretation of pharmacovigilance legislation, and ensure compliance with regulations and best practices for the company’s real-world and late phase research efforts.

Dr. Blackburn has more than two decades of experience in the fields of pharmacovigilance and pharmacoepidemiology. She joins the company from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), where she spent more than 16 years in various roles, most recently as the EMA Risk Management Development and Scientific Lead. In this role, Dr. Blackburn was responsible for designing and implementing risk management public policy and processes used throughout Europe. Prior to joining the EMA, Dr. Blackburn worked in hospital medicine and also spent more than 11 years in the pharmaceutical industry in a variety of leadership roles.

“Stella’s experience developing innovative risk management solutions for our customers is a tremendous addition to our team,” said Cynthia Verst, M.S., Pharm.D., president, Real-World & Late Phase Research at Quintiles. “Throughout her career, Stella has forged cross-sector partnerships — driving the sort of collaboration we are cultivating here at Quintiles — to develop comprehensive risk management policies and processes designed to protect patients and advance clinical research worldwide. She brings a range of unique safety expertise and experience that we can leverage across our business to better assist our customers with solutions to meet regulatory and reimbursement requirements for their products, and subsequent risk benefit monitoring.”